1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an improvement for a device enabling a copier to scan and copy both sides of at least one object in a single pass of an office copier scanner.
2. Description of Related Art
There are existing devices or accessories that permit copies of both sides of a document to be made onto a single side of a copy paper. They typically employ a hinged holder that rotates about that hinged side and sequentially presents first one side and then the other to the copier as scanning proceeds so that both sides of the object will appear on a single side of the copy paper. These devices take several forms:
One approach requires full manual operation, where the operator must move the document holder from one position to the next so that both sides of the object may be copied. (Niesen et al U.S. Pat. No. 3,717,411, Caps U.S. Pat. No. 1,696,381, Caps, U.S. Pat. No. 1,692,544 and Caldwell U.S. Pat. No. 3,381,573). Not only does this design require considerable attention from the copier operator, but in many office copiers, scanning action is so fast as to make this approach unworkable.
In another approach, the power for flipping the document holder from one side to the other is provided by the motion of the copy platen mechanism (Kucera U.S. Pat. No. 3,475,094, Komori U.S. Pat. No. 3,675,999 and Burdick U.S. Pat. No. 3,561,865). This design requires that the device be mechanically attached to the moving platen securely enough so that the motion of the platen will not displace the device. Further, because the attachment must be demounted to use the copier for other purposes, this approach is unacceptably inconvenient. Moreover, this approach is not applicable to copying machines of the type most commonly used wherein the platen is fixed.